A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles
(Parlophone 1964, George Martin)
In many ways A Hard Day's Night is the most important Beatles album. It came at a crucial time in there careers, this was the absolute zenith of Beatlemania, the Beatles were everywhere and the movie of the same name would transform them into a global phenomena. This was the boy band Beatles at the height of their fame, they made the transition to movies in an attempt by Parlophone to extent their appeal, many foresaw this as the beginning of the end for the world's biggest fad, the point of no return, it could only be down hill from here right? Wrong, dead wrong, because the Beatles were more than just a pop group from Merseyside, they were talent musicians and composers who were about to change music forever, and this was their pivotal moment. A Hard Day's Night isn't their best album, or even their best remembered but it's the first true Beatles album. This is the first record of all original compositions from track one to track thirteen. It's also the only Beatles album to be composed of solely Lennon & McCartney tracks, no writing credits for George and not a single song for Ringo to sing. Most importantly this is the record that developed the Beatles sound, more than the sum of their influences this was when the Beatles really started to sound like the Beatles. Okay, enough dramatic hyperbole, let's get to the music.
First of all, this album contained two absolute monster singles, and any thought that the Beatles would flop when they had to rely solely on the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership was vanquished instantly. This album spawned two global number ones, firstly, the albums title track A Hard Day's Night. This track always had something that set it's self apart, from that opening awkward clanging chord, it grabs your attention, it's wrong but it feels right, the first time you hear that clang it tweaks your ear and your hooked. Of course after second one, the track rattles and clangs with vigour, the bass bobbles along perfectly as Ringo thunders away on the skins, it's perfect pop, it marks out the distinctive Beatles sound of 64-65 and it couldn't possible be anyone else, and I haven't even mentioned the harmonies. The second number one to come from A Hard Day's Night was Can't Buy Me Love, to modern ears, this feels like a heritage track, so distinctively British, so sweet, so charming, and so damn Innocent. This hardly sounds like classic rock and roll but somehow it is, there's something about the harmonies and the honesty of the music that has you buying into it hook line and sinker. Two pure examples of perfect pop.
The real key to the success of this album is the development of the Beatles sound, the second you turn this record on you know it's a departure from With The Beatles. It's sounds richer, Harrison guitar work and chord selection has a real vibrancy to match the harmonies. So you have this vibrant earthy guitar work, the chord selections feel so classic and defining now, but at the time they were bold and daring. It feels funny saying that about such sweet harmonious pop music but believe you me Bob Dylan and The Bryds were paying attention and a little band called the Kinks were just waiting to explode. So on one side of the ball you have this more organic musicianship a move away from the classic Merseybeat formula, while on the other side, the Beatles have really come into their own as balladeers. So you get this great shifts in the album, following on the heels of A Hard Day's Night comes I Should Have Known Better with it's rumbling acoustic chords and the sweet clangs of Harrison's electric guitar, but then the album drops into a full on R'n'B ballad in the form of If I Fell.
However at the heart of this record are these gorgeous vibrant two minute pop singles I'm Happy Just To Dance With You & Tell Me Why are perfect examples, short sharp bass driven pop gems. Yet oddly on this record, compared to the previous two efforts the lively pop numbers feel like the throwaways, and it's the ballads that really take you back. In many ways it's similar to the development of the Arctic Monkeys, as they get older the raucous pop singles play second fiddle to these gorgeous ballads. And I Love Her is the clear winner, it's the first sighting of what was to become the signature McCartney ballad, it's utterly beautiful, it's sweeping and yet sparse. Just a gorgeous plucked guitar with the occasion single chime of a chord while Ringo pats delicately on his bongos, it's beautiful and it feels older and more mature than it has any right to. It's a prototype, a few years later McCartney would be stealing the spotlight on Srg. Peppers... with just this sort of ballad, the foundation was in place. It's still a fun little pop record but the seeds of maturity and the seeds of revolutionary genius were just begging to spout.
For those reasons A Hard Day's Night is less immediate than it's predecessors, the songs do still have an immediate quality, but this is the first Beatles album that you can invest yourself in and discover hidden thrills. The first two efforts, were brilliant pop, they grabbed you immediately with slick smooth Beatles melodies. A Hard Day's Night possesses these qualities but it has something more and the Beatles damn well knew it. They lay some obvious hints hell Lennon even says outright "I found that love was more that just holding hands" hardly cryptic is it. This really comes to fruition on the later half of the LP as Lennon tears into Anytime At All with fury as the guitars jangle relentlessly, it's followed by I'll Cry Instead which sounds like a chirpy Paul pop number but the lyrics are a little more cutting and biting than anything on either of their previous efforts;
"Can't Talk To People That I Meet.
If I Could See You Now,
I'd Try To Make You Sad Somehow.
But I Can't So I'll Cry Instead,
Don't Wanna Cry When There's People There,
I Get Shy When They Start To Stare,
I'm Gonna Hide Myself Away...
You'd Better Hide All The Girls,
I'm Gonna Break There Hearts All Around The World"
Not exactly Love Me Do is it? Paul swearing to take his revenge of the women of the world by ruthlessly loving and leaving them. Everything about this record is deeper and more mature, from the more well rounded organic sound, to the rich harmonies and more intriguing lyricism, the second half of this LP delights on multiple levels. A track like Things We Said Today feels like it has multiple gears and moods, a depth of songwriting absent on With The Beatles.
I'll Be Back with its haunting harmonies provides a fitting end note to the album, in retrospect it feels like a statement of intend. One last gorgeous ballad, in that wondrous Beatles sorrow laden cadence, this was proof that The Beatles would be back, this is no fad, no flash in the pan, Parlophone had four seriously talented artists on their hands. Placing A Hard Day's Night is tricky, it's an absolute landmark in The Beatles career, you can hear their development at every turn, but it wasn't quite definitive yet, this is the sound of a band in transition. There's still the spirit of the world's greatest boy band who could fire out sugar coated hits in their sleep but there's also this sense of awakening, of a band discovering their own talent, their own sound, and stretching themselves artistically. It may have marked the end of the Beatlemania but this was simply the end of the beginning, The Beatles were set to evolve. Now how do we place this album, musically it's more rewarding than both With The Beatles and Please, Please Me but the later is such a cohesive satisfying romp, it's tough to put one above the other. Some listeners will find this album thrilling, others will be frustrated as it's stuck between great craftsmanship and power pop immediacy. Q called it the fifth greatest British album of all time, that's a step too far, I could probably name five better Beatles albums alone, but it's a measure of esteem with which this album is held. It's perhaps more fair to say that this was the best album of The Beatles career so far, and undoubtedly their most important, but not necessarily their most satisfying.
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